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Melbourne International Jazz festival

enjoyed Stefano Bollani and Hamilton de Holanda at Hamer hall satdee night

standing ovation (* * * * review in today's Age)

telepathic interplay between the pianist and bandolimist!

< An audacious, daring improviser and prolific composer, Italian pianist Stefano Bollani is one of the most prodigiously gifted musicians on the European jazz scene, possessing an exquisite touch, a rambunctious sense of humour and an adventurous sensibility. He performs tonight with the ‘Jimi Hendrix of the Bandolim’, Hamilton de Holanda who has spent the last 15 years reinventing the 10-string mandolin. >


 
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Melbourne International Jazz festival

enjoyed Stefano Bollani and Hamilton de Holanda at Hamer hall satdee night

standing ovation (* * * * review in today's Age)

telepathic interplay between the pianist and bandolimist!

< An audacious, daring improviser and prolific composer, Italian pianist Stefano Bollani is one of the most prodigiously gifted musicians on the European jazz scene, possessing an exquisite touch, a rambunctious sense of humour and an adventurous sensibility. He performs tonight with the ‘Jimi Hendrix of the Bandolim’, Hamilton de Holanda who has spent the last 15 years reinventing the 10-string mandolin. >

 

Hi Ian.Lucky you.I would loved to have gone to one of those gigs,but alas.Nice to hear you enjoyed yourself. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...


  • 2 weeks later...

Irish singer, Eithne Ni Uallachain's album Bilingua.

 

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I'm a bit of a fan of female Irish singers, but I only became aware of Eithne Ni Uallachain quite recently. She was married to Irish fiddle player Gerry O'Connor, and they had previously released a number of albums together, and with the band they formed, La Lugh, in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

Bilingua was to be her first solo album, but tragedy sadly intervened when she took her own life in 1999. She had started work on the album in 1998 and had recorded all the vocal parts. At the time of her death, some of the songs had been fully recorded and mixed, but others were unfinished. Some time after her passing, her husband and son got together with a number of other musicians and completed the album.

 

Unfortunately, record company contractual problems prevented the album seeing the light of day for many years. It wasn't until 2014 that it was finally released on the Gael Linn label. It was mainly due to the persistent efforts of her son, Donal, that the album was completed, and eventually released.

 

 

I ordered my copy from her website, and it arrived a few days ago. I've played it a couple of times so far.

 

The album has been released very much as a tribute to Eithne Ni Uallachain, and is quite well presented. It is in the form of a small hardcover book, with the CD mounted on the inside back cover. The booklet contains quite comprehensive notes describing Eithne's life and musical history, interspersed with family and performance photographs. There are descriptive notes about each of the songs, along with lyrics. An added touch are tributes from fellow singers Pauline Scanlon, Muirreann Nic Amhlaoibh, Mary Black, Karen Matheson and Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill. Very nicely done.

 

The album itself contains a mixture of musical styles. She has quite a pleasant, melodic voice. My personal preference is for the songs with more simple arrangements, as these tend to more successfully highlight the qualities of her voice. I do find the arrangements on a number of songs to be a bit heavy handed, but I stress this is just personal preference. The album has been well finished and well mixed, sound quality is very good.

 

Personal favourites are track 6, 'The Fisherman' and track 9, 'I'm Weary of Lying Alone' (the English translation is a bit easier to type than the Irish!).

 

On 'The Fisherman', she had recorded a vocal guide track, along with a verse. She had intended to record some more verses later, but that was not to be. Her son, Donal, explains that they gathered a number of musicians together with the intention of making the final recording sound like a finished song. I think they've succeeded quite well.

 

'I'm Weary of Lying Alone' is a song she learnt from Iarla O'Lionaird in 1992, and is probably my favourite track on the album. (Incidentally, Iarla O'Lionaird recorded this song on his 2005 album 'Invisible Fields').

 

In summary, I think this is an excellent tribute to a fine Irish singer who left us too soon. I may well be tempted to have a listen to some of her earlier recordings with La Lugh.

 

Here is a short film about the album.

 

 

Footnote: In the second photo you may notice some slight damage to the top and bottom corners, courtesy of postal delivery services  :angry: . Fotunately the damage is relatively minor, if annoying.

Edited by emesbee
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Xaos, latest Songlines mag mentions it, heard a track on Tuesday's The Good, The Dub and the Global with Systa BB, RRR FM Tues 2-4pm

Dubulah (Transglobal Underground, Dub Colossus) mixes it with Greek folk

 

cool track!

 

 

< XAOS
(chaos)
‘Xaos’ is post-Troika Hellenic Trance Music, a hybrid of Greek folk, post-traditional and classical music instruments, from the last 5,000 years, with modern computers and keyboards to combine ancient and modern ideas via the sonic manipulation made possible by present day technology. The extraordinary album (out 22 June 2015 on Independent Records Ltd.) took Greek microtonal electronic music composer, keyboard player and painter Ahetas and Anglo-Greek performer, producer and writer Dubulah ten years to record and complete.
Check out “Pontos Bluesâ€, the opening track of the album, a 21st century Greek Blues - like Nick Cave and Ry Cooder meeting at a black sea port … featuring Pontic lyra and voice, microtonal keyboards, double bass, percussion, dobro slide guitar and kanonaki. >

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mamadou diabate, jeff Lang and bobby Singh

Djan Djan

A terrific album - sounds like these guys and these instruments were just meant to play together.

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Edited by buddyev
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The new album from Scottish trio LAU, 'The Bell That Never Rang'.

 

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The members of LAU are Kris Drever (guitar, vocals), Martin Green (accordion, electronics) and Aidan O'Rourke (fiddle). On this album, they are joined by the Elysian Quartet, and the album is produced by Joan Wasser, who also contributes some vocals. (Joan Wasser is someone who I am not familiar with, apart from the fact she also goes by the rather odd name of 'Joan As Policewoman'.)

 

The centrepiece of this album is the title track, which was commissioned by the Celtic Connections Festival, Glasgow, and runs for around 17 minutes (long, even by LAU's standards). The Elysium Quartet is the main focus of this piece, with Kris Drever's vocals appearing a fair way into it.

 

I sometimes think that listening to LAU's music is bit like listening to an Indian raga. The music, of course, is quite different, but there does seem to be some basic similarity of structure. A LAU piece typically seems to start off slow and rather meditative, stripped down to basics to begin with, then slowly builds, until a repeating theme emerges which eventually leads to a climax, before the music settles down to a quiet conclusion. That is certainly the case here with the title track.

 

Some of the reviews I've read about this album say that it moves a bit closer to Scottish traditional music than some of their previous efforts, but I beg to differ. I think it moves a bit further away, if anything. That, in itself, is neither a good or bad thing, just a point of difference from what they've done before.

 

I had a listen to this last night, but am a bit undecided what to think about it. I think its probably a bit of a sleeper, one which needs several spins before one can fully appreciate. You do have to 'get in the mood' for it though.

 

Incidentally, a 2 disc version of this album, including a signed print. is available only from LAU's website. The second disc appears to mainly consist of alternate mixes of the main album tracks, with a couple of others thrown in. At 20 UK pounds though, it works out at around $42 AU before shipping, which seems a bit expensive. You can also get this same combination plus 2 x 180gm LPs for 35 UK pounds. The LP version has a limited production run of 1000 copies. I'll let the vinyl club decide if they think this is good value or not.

 

I bought the single CD locally for $25.

 

 

 

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Joseph Tawadros - Truth Seekers, Lovers and Warriors - 2015 - CD

 

"walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic

love music and never forget you come from a long line of

truth seekers, lovers and warriors"

 

- Hunter S. Thompson

 

 

Joseph Tawadros - Oud; James Tawdros - Req, Bendir; Matt McMahon - Piano; James Crabb - Accordian, James Greening - Trombone

 

First spin of this disc. I'm still riding the high after having just seen Joseph and his brother James performing two sets at Venue 505. What a privilige. Whenever I see these guys play live, it's like dreaming without being asleep. This is music to "wash away the detritus from the soul". 

 

Cheers,

Leigh 

 

Edit: I omitted the trombonist ;)

Edited by ferchersan
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touring Melbourne Festival in Oct

Babylon Circus (seen these guys at Womad, fab live!)

https://www.festival.melbourne/events/babylon-circus/#.Vc1GLs7LCf4

 

< Famed around the world for their irrepressible, high-octane live shows, French 10-piece Babylon Circus are an all-singing, all-dancing ska-rock explosion.

Channeling everything from The Specials to Gogol Bordello to the swinging riffs of big band jazz, Babylon Circus are purveyors of an exhilarating horn-driven mix of reggae, swing, punk and everything in between.

Fusing joyous French-English songs with bouncing brass sections, gypsy accordionists and manic guitar licks, they’ve got one mission and one mission only – to whip up the sort of righteous party that could inspire revolutions. Now in their 20th year, and veterans of more than 1500 gigs across 35 countries, Babylon Circus have shown they’re no slouches when it comes to bringing the noise.

The only question: are you ready to dance? >

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The hour of separation is my fave.

He can be a bit relentlessly virtuosic on his own and benefits from being reined in as part of a larger group of big talents.

Joseph Tawadros (Oud)

John Abercrombie (Electric Guitar)

John Patitucci (Double Bass)

Jack dejohnette

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Edited by buddyev
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exotica as a genre, is it world music? Kind of..... welcome to the world of Tiki

Aloha, Baby!

Tikiyaki Orchestra out of California,

http://shoptikiyaki.wix.com/tikiyakiorchestra

title track Idol Worship off their latest album is so cool!

http://www.amazon.com/Idol-Worship-Other-Primitive-Pleasures/dp/B011M7AC2U/ref=sr_1_1_twi_mus_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439861774&sr=8-1&keywords=idol+worship+tikiyaki

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